The Next meeting of the Michigan Snowmobile and Trails Advisory Council is April 8th, 2014 from 10-3 at the RAM Center in Roscommon. Representative from Great Lakes Four Wheel Drive Association will be in attendance to voice our position on the issues presented. As always, the public is welcome at the meeting and has the option to make comments as well. There are at least two very important issues that may be discussed at this meeting and we are hoping to have a significant presence at the meeting from our members and any Full Size 4WD users. See a brief explanation of the issues below. Meeting information can be found here: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dn...s_441972_7.pdf

One of the items that may be addressed at this meeting concerns SB50. Last year SB50 was approved, removing the need for users to fill out event permits as long as the event is being done in adherence with local statues, laws and policies.

Key Facts:
1. Per SB50 the DNR with help of MSTAC and interested parties was to put together a new policy within 90 days of SB50 passing. SB50 passed the end of Sept 2013 and there still is not an approved policy and we have not been provided (as an interested party) a copy of the draft polices.
2. The number of users should no longer be an event trigger. Previously if you had 20 or more people in a group you would need to file a permit.
3. The cost of a permit can many times be over $500.
4. When we asked the DNR at the MSTAC meeting in Oct 2013 they said the policy would be completed and published the beginning of December. We asked Ron Olson from the DNR if permits would be needed for events like SnoFari and he stated “no” because there was no special request for state land.
5. Despite these assurances, and the bill requiring the language to be settled by the end of December, both SnoFari and SnoBlind were required to pull permits in 2014 for their events.

GLFWDA Position:
The department has failed to publish guidelines within the time frame mandated by SB50. GLFWDA takes the position that event permits should not be required in accordance with SB50. Full size users are particularly affected by this since as few as 5 full size 4x4’s (with families of four) was enough to trigger a permit under the old guidelines so the new bill was a significant relief to our usergroup.